NOR NARJIHAH BINTI MUSLIM

910325-03-5176
124750
Praise to God for giving me a good health so that I could work on this Language
Assessment assignment very well. Based on the tasks, there are many new insights that I
have gained in designing, constructing and using a test or assessment task in the ESL
primary classroom.
First thing first, throughout this coursework, I have learned that it is very important to
assess the pupils in order to check on their ability and how much they have learnt.
Assessment would also benefit teachers as we could identify the effectiveness of our
teaching. When the pupils could do well in the tests or assessment prepared, it means that
the objectives of the lesson have been achieved. Based on my observation, I have realised
that a test or assessment act as a tool to give the overview of the knowledge that the pupils
have gained. Teacher could know whether the lesson needs any improvements or
modifications. Therefore, I believe that it is important for us, teachers, to carry out the
language assessment to see the effectiveness of our teaching and also to see how much the
pupils had gained the knowledge during the lesson.
Next, I have learned that it is not an easy task to prepare a test or assessment. I
understand that we, as teachers, should consider many factors in constructing an
assessment, especially the use of the basic principles in language assessment, which are
reliability, validity, practicality and authenticity. For example, in order for me to prepare a
reliable assessment task, I have to make sure that it agrees the attributions of the reliability
principle such as the items prepared are unambiguous to the test-taker. Based on the items
prepared by Mdm. Roslina for assessing her pupils, I could see that she had chosen the
good ones which agreed the attributions of reliability principle. Moreover, I also have to take
into account the purpose and significance of the test or assessment that will be conducted,
which rely on the validity attributions. I should have prepared the assessment that measures
exactly what it proposes to measure. If I want to assess the pupils on speaking skill, I should
avoid involving other irrelevant variables like writing skill during the assessment. According to
Brown & Abeywickrama (2010), it would not achieve content validity if we assess a persons
ability to speak, if we ask the learner to answer paper-and-pencil multiple-choice questions.
Therefore, I have learned to prepare good assessments or tests to test the pupils throughout
this assignment.

Other than that, I also have gained the knowledge that the different formats in
language testing can be used to assess different skills and learners levels. Based on the
observation I have made on the format used by Mdm. Roslina to assess her pupils, she
preferred to use gap filling format as she wanted to assess the pupils on grammar item.
Thornbury (1999), quoted in Arshad Abd Samad (2010), notes that grammar is typically
assessed by means of discrete point tests such as gap filling and multiple choice tasks. He
believes that such discrete point testing may be useful for us to determine knowledge of
grammatical structure. However, it may be insufficient to determine overall language
proficiency and also communicative ability or competence. Apart from this kind of format, I
have learned that there are also the formats to test oral ability, reading comprehension and
vocabulary. I knew that I cannot use the oral test format to test writing skill as I would not
achieve the purpose of assessment. According to Arshad Abd Samad (2010), the format of
oral ability test is used to test speaking skill, whereas the questions prepared based on
reading text are used to test reading skill. Therefore, by completing this assignment, I
realized that I should not have simply assessing the pupils without considering the test
formats used based on the skills that I purposely want to measure.
Next, from this assignment, I have gained the information on preparing the test
blueprint or test specifications. According to Brown (2010), test specifications for classroom
use can be an outline of a test or assessment, which it is how a test or assessment will look
like. The test specifications could be one of the alternative ways to design and conduct a test
or assessment. For example, a teacher could use the Blooms Taxonomy as a form of test
blueprint or specifications. I have learned that Blooms Taxonomy or the revised one of test
specifications could be the guidance for me, as a teacher to design an assessment, based
on the six major categories, which are; remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing,
evaluating and creating. The blueprint or specifications is very useful to ensure that different
kinds of questions are asked to suit the objectives or purposes of the test or assessment. I
believe that the blueprint could be a great help in order for us, teachers, to design and
construct a good quality of test or assessment. Therefore, I am very sure that it could be the
alternative way in maintaining the effectiveness of a language assessment.
From the materials and items that I have prepared to assess the pupils on grammar
skill, I believe that the use of variety types of questions is suitable to be implemented in the
test or assessment. For example, I could ask the pupils to make sentences from the verbs
given or guess the correct sentences, instead of just having the gap filling questions. The
variety of questions would not make them feel bored and also could help them to discover
the different kinds of questions. When I assessed the pupils using these kinds of items, I
found that I still could achieve the purpose of measuring the pupils understanding on the

grammar items they have learned before, which is Simple Present Tense. I could see that all
the pupils could answer the questions very well even though the types of questions used
were varied. Therefore, from what I could observe, the use of variety types of questions
would help me to assess the pupils understanding better as they would be more alert on
different kinds of questions that would be asked.
Apart from that, I found that assessment would be more meaningful and interesting if I
combine with activities like games. As I used Roll Me, Roll Me game, I could see that the
pupils actively involved and this would help me to assess them better. For example, when
one of the pupils had to answer a gap filling question after rolling the dice, I could assess him
or her and got the evidence immediately. I could know whether the pupil had mastered the
grammar item or not. Moreover, I would suggest this kind of assessment method since it
simulates real world tasks. I believe that most of the kids really love games, so I could say
that the assessment is authentic as assessing grammar through games could relate with
their real life situation. According to Brown & Abeywickrama (2010), when you make a claim
for authenticity in a test task, you are saying that this task is likely to be enacted in the real
world. Therefore, I am sure that the assessment would be authentic.
In conclusion, this coursework had taught me a lot. I realise now that everything that I
have learned can be used in the future.

(1219 words)